1

Understanding the Representation of Gender in theatre through Female Impersonation

in India
Word Count 5328

Sheetala Bhat
MA English

Gender and Sexuality

December 2015

Understanding the Representation of Gender in theatre through Female Impersonation

in India

Female Impersonation is a ubiquitous theatrical practise in India, which received cultural

legitimacy and appreciation, as womens entry into theatre was a troublesome story
altogether. Yet, there is very little scholarship on female impersonation in relation to gender,
as cross gender acting is largely spoken of only in the context of performative triumphs of
individual actors. In this paper, I would like to trace the history of female impersonation in
the Indian context. Nevertheless, I would focus on individual female impersonators but not
on their performing abilities, but rather on the construction of gender identity of the actor.
Here in this paper, I am talking about female impersonation as, dramatic conventions in
theatrical spaces where a male actor dresses up as a woman (Fortunatti 1992, 106). Though
cross gender acting seems to be a stagnant theatrical practise which exists even today in the
same form, a close understanding of it reveals the changes over time not only in the
performative aspects, but also in terms of a theoretical understanding of it which has
undoubtedly influenced the subject position of the cross gender actor in the context of
representation of gender in theatre. Female impersonation in this paper is studied in three
broad historical time periods, namely, transvestism in folk theatre of pre-colonial time, the
company theatre of nationalist era, and cross gender acting in post-colonial era which also
includes the reconstructed narratives of actors from previous phases in a different light. 1 In
this paper, I would try to show that the gender identity of the female impersonator is
constructed in correspondence with the dominant political discourses of that historical phase.
Gender in Indian theatre or representation of gender in theatre, can be traced back to
transvestism. The entry of women into theatre is closely tied to the cross gender acting
practises.2 Monopoly of female impersonators and their popularity, as noted by Kathryn
Hansen, established a paradigm for female performance even before Indian women
themselves had become visible (Hansen 1999, 127). This phenomena signifies that
1 Female impersonation of folk theatre is not exclusive to precolonial India. In other words, practises
of female impersonation in folk theatre have continued in the later periods also, but the later forms of
female impersonation didnt exist in precolonial India. See Hansen 1999.
2 Entry of women was delayed due to the practises of cross gender acting. Even after emergence of
the category of actress in the field, some companies maintained closed doors to them to maintain the
respectability of theatre. See Rimili Bhattacharya 1990 and Hansen 1999.

transvestism determined standards of female acting, but more importantly impersonation

became central to the understanding of representation of women in theatre. I would argue that
representation of gender has shifted in each of the historical time frames that I have
mentioned before. Determined by the dominant ideological discourses of the time, changes in
female impersonation mark the vicissitudes in the representation of gender in theatre.

She who wears the blouse: Female Impersonation in folk theatre

Female impersonators of Bhavai, rural folk theatre of Gujarat and Rajasthan, are called
Kanchaliyan in reference to Kanchali, womans blouse. Kanchaliyan literally means she
who wears the blouse (Hansen 2002). Transvestism in folk theatres of early India was
widely common, like in Bhavai, Jatra, and even in tamasha until a few actresses like Gulab
Bhai gained stardom. Female impersonation in these folk forms was directed towards
entertaining the audience through lewd humour. Impersonation here was without a doubt, far
from a realistic portrayal of women which can be seen in the company theatre. The satirical
nature of these folk theatres, for instance Bhavai, which often targeted moneylenders,
priests, and other figures of authority, bringing a strong flavour of social critique to their
skits, facilitated non-realistic portrayal of women (Hansen 2002). Female roles were often
played by young boys or by adults who were known for their skills of impersonation. What
is important here is that impersonation was a comical tool as they were eschewed for
lewdness. The term Kanchaliyan itself indicates the sardonic tone of the impersonation where
transvestites satirized women and male-female relationships while delighting the audience
with dances such as the ras and garba (hansen 2002). Through the imitation of womens
dance steps, the impersonators here were clearly invoking humour. Representation of women
is far from being a realistic identification with the femaleness, and has more to do with
enhancing the gender boundaries. The theatrical representation of women here is to delight
the audience by presenting a sexual body. The lewdness of these kinds of impersonations
reiterate the fact that women as a category is represented for consumers delight without any
attempt at making interiority visible or accessible.
There is another kind of impersonation that highlights the hyper-masculinity of the
hero. Kathryn Hansen notes,
Many classical and folk tales from the subcontinent employ gender disguise as a narrative
device to bring the hero into closer proximity with the heroine. The hero disguises as a female

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to get past a guard, enter a garden, or penetrate a bedchamber, whereupon he reverts to his
masculine role and seduces the heroine. Transvestism in these cases only thinly cloaks a
somewhat aggressive male heterosexuality, and the transvestite, rather than being read as a
woman or as identifying emotionally with her, is actually understood as very much a man
(Hansen 1999, 137).

In this case man is playing the role of a man who again plays the role of a woman. The
palimpsest of gender identities is to highlight the masculinity of the male character.
It is important to note that representation of gender in theatre in this phase is only
male and masculine; female impersonation either uses women as objects of humour and
desire or emphasizes the masculinity of the character. Partially, this is owing to the absence of
women in theatre. However, the attitude which is keeping the women away from
performances and thereby from public life is also playing in the background of such
representations of gender in theatre. It is clear from practises such as sati or the life
prescribed to widows that female is not an independent gender but that which serves as tools
for the male gender. The practise of reducing womens lives to nothing as soon as the male
counterpart dies signifies the larger discourses related to women (Srasvati 1981). The only
gender which was recognized in larger and accepted discourses was male, whereas the female
was akin to being a material possession of the male.
The absence of representation of the female in theatre in this phase, I argue, is due to
the non-recognition of female gender within the social realm. This can be contrasted with the
proliferation of female roles and the star status gained by female impersonators in the next
phase of company theatre, when women as a category gain immense attention in social and
political discourse.

Bharateeya Nari on stage: Transvestism in Company Theatre

The company theatre brought women to the centre with their realistic representation of
women. Women centric plays dramatically increased with the proliferation of company
theatre, which was indeed parallel to the increasing popularity of female impersonators like
Bal Gandharva from Marathi theatre and Jayashankara Sundari from Gujarati theatre. The
portrayal of chaste and great women from mythologies and also from other newly written
plays was the central attraction of the plays in company theatre.

Jayashankar Sundari, coming from a family of artists, developed an interest in theatre from a
very young age. He was taken to watch a play of a local drama troupe at the age of eight, and
from then onwards he was drawn to the world of theatre. He was leased to a theatre group for
six rupees per month by his family where he danced in the girls group. From the day he
played a female role in the play Saubhgya Sundari, he has been recognized as Sundari and
remained at the height of fame till he retired. He is known for his total recognition with the
female characters, especially Karuna rasa. In his autobiography, he writes,
At the moment when Jayashankar first attired himself in a choli and lahanga, he was
transformed into a woman, or rather into the artistic form that expresses the feminine
sensibility. A beautiful young female revealed herself inside me. Her shapely, intoxicating
youth sparkled. Her feminine charm radiated fragrance [] she was not a man, she was a
woman. An image such as this was the one I saw in the mirror (Sundari 2011, 210).

Though it has the resonances of blurring gender lines, it was perceived as his success
in realistic acting. Such an articulation about the complete involvement in the character is
interesting for me to understand the representation of gender in theatre. The prohibition of
women in theatre was justified by noting that a female impersonator could do gender better
than women. The representation of the true women was necessary not only to keep
actresses away but also to validate the claim of representing authentic Indian women.
Bal Gandharva, contemporary of Jayashankar Sundari, also achieved great heights in
his career as a female impersonator. He joined Kirloskar Drama Company in 1905, and soon
became very popular from his debut play Shakuntala, thereby turning into a favourite of
students of Deccan College, where he was often invited to sing on many occasions. He was a
man of perfection who had an eye for detail. He was highly particular and hence extravagant
when it came to the authenticity of sets, costumes, etc. of the plays. For one of his play
Draupadi, it is noted that he spent seventy five thousand rupees for one curtain in a particular
scene i.e. Kauravas and Pandavs court scene. The success of the female impersonator was
relied on the degree of naturalness to pass as a woman. An anecdote about Balgandharva tells
that he had achieved that desired end of complete transformation into a woman. It was said
that he passed as a woman in a Haldi Kumkum ceremony at Baroda palace held by Maharani
of Baroda (Nadkarni 1988). Such realistic extremity was much applauded and considered as
the height of ones performative abilities.
The obsession with realistic representation is reflective of what theatre was thriving
towards. The appreciation of realistic sets, and realistic acting in this era cannot be reduced to
a change in aesthetic sensibility. In contrast to the transvestism in folk theatre, the effort was

to represent the real Indian woman where the male gender remains hidden completely. Both
Gandharva and Sundari played the roles of submissive, docile, ever giving middle class
women in their plays as can be seen in their photos of the play and scripts. Kathryn opines,
Photographs of our male heroines with heads bent in submission, or eyes gazing up to the
hero, or body turned away coquettishly, show the match between these actors poses and
iconic postures of the feminine. The internalization of these gestures by the female
spectatorship marked a new direction in theatre art, for instead of fearing transvestite, the
viewer was instructed to model herself on him. [] this spectorial position made possible the
notion that female impersonators portrayed the societal idea of femininity (Hansen 1998,
2296).

Theatrical representation of gender in this phase clearly constructed an image of

Bharateeya Nari which, I argue, was indeed a result of the influence of the larger project of
nationalism. The sudden shift in the art form including the celebration of realistic acting and
the complete erasure of transvestites gender was influenced and accelerated by the efforts of
the nationalistic rhetoric. Women as a category became central to the Indian nationalism as
Sinha notes, Although women may have been marginalized from the domain of the public,
they have clearly played a significant role in the production and maintenance of national
communities and national identities all over the world. Women, for example, are conspicuous
in nationalist discourses as symbols of national culture and, through the control of womens
sexuality, as the markers of community boundaries (Sinha 2004, 215). The representation of
women in theatre was modelled on the idea of women that nationalism invented. Female
impersonation helped the nationalist project of constructing woman as a symbol of national
culture, by portraying the prototype of the Indian woman.

image
Parsi

Figure1. Bal Gandharva in this picture is playing the

womans role in the Marathi play sanshaykollal. This
is taken from Kathryn Hansens (1999) essay Making
Women Visible: Gender and race Cross-dressing in the
Theatre, where the photo is reproduced with the
permission of National Centre for the Performing Arts,
Mumbai.

However, interestingly, the seemingly contrasting

practise was the strict exclusion of female actresses for womens roles. The obsession with
realistic representation to showcase the authentic Indian woman didnt result in breaking

puritanical views about actresses. The famous female impersonators like Bal Gandharva
prohibited women in their theatre companies as a matter of policy. One of the important
Marathi stage actresses who also acted in Phalkes films, Kamalabai Gokhale recounts that
Balgandharva invited her husband for the main male roles alongside Bal Gandharvas female
roles. Kamalabais husband agreed on the condition that his wife and her mother should be
given work in his company. Balgndharva, she notes, refused out right as, no women will
ever appear in his stage productions (Kak 1984, 25). This policy of Bal Gandharva and
others seem to be coming from a place of professional jealousy and anxiety. The question
about the future of female impersonators if actresses took over female roles, the nightmare
which later became true, seems to have bothered them. They might have imagined a possible
threat to their fame and economical resource, and moreover to their professional identities
due to the entrance of women into theatre. Such developments later not only became true but
also erased female impersonation to a great extent.
However, my argument here is that the anxiety of individual female impersonators
was not the only reason, but there was again the construction of the image of Indian woman
which was at work behind the exclusion of women from theatre. Realistic representation of
women was necessary but at the same time real women on stage would have contradicted the
very idea of Bharateeya Nari that they were representing. To represent the ideal submissive
woman, it was necessary to have representatives of a different gender as the very act of
coming on stage was against the characteristics prescribed to women through those womens
roles in the plays. The proliferation of female impersonators thus had the necessary
ideological support from society.
The sudden popularity of any actor, let alone the female impersonators which took
place in this phase, was unheard of in the history of Indian theatre. It is said that women
modelled themselves upon the attires, jewelleries, hairstyles of these figures on stage. Both
Sundari and Bal Gandharva influenced womens fashion trends of that time. Bal Gandharva
changed Maharashtrian saree from six yards to ten yards. Later in his life, he returned back to
six yard sarees but since he had gained weight by then he didnt wrap it between the legs,
which was the way it was worn before. It was said that the change in the style of wearing
saree invented by Bal Gandharva, turned out to be very liberating for women (Nadkarni 1988,
59).

Due to his popularity, the household goods carried his picture and name for
marketing. The image below shows Bal Gandharva toilet powder, soap, cap, keychain and
medical tonic (Hansen 1999, 136). Such a sudden upsurge in the popularity of a stage actor to
the extent that household products used his name for marketing, I think, cant be reduced to
the performative abilities of the actor. The represented here is the locus to deliberate upon
the nationalist, reformist and colonial ideologies, and thereby surpasses the realm of
performance and gets proliferated due to social approval.

Figure 2. Household products with Bal Gandhrvas name. This image is taken from Kathryn Hansens
(1999) essay Making Women Visible: Gender and race Cross-dressing in the Parsi Theatre, where
the photo is reproduced with the permission of National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai.

Female Impersonation in Post- Independence India

With the entry of women into theatre, the popularity of impersonation drastically
decreased, as feared by the female impersonators. Today, female impersonation in the public
theatre is rare to the level of being inexistent, except in the case of some classical dance
forms like Yakshagana and Kathakkali. However, interestingly, female impersonation is
present in variant ways in post-colonial India, namely, as plays about female impersonators,
case study of a female impersonator, and in the manner in which female impersonation of
company theatre has been resurrected in discourses.
First, meta- theatrical presentation of female impersonation such as Begum Barve and
Sundari: An Actor prepares, which can be seen in the post-colonial theatre scenario is
discussed in this section. The themes that would emerge in these theatrical narratives about
female impersonators provide a ground to understand the case study of the last and important
female impersonator, Chapal Bhaduri. Therefore, the attempt here is to understand the
presentation of gender in the meta-theatrical plays, the context in which I would like to place
the discussions on the female impersonator, Chapal Bhaduri.
The play, Sundari: An Actor Prepares, written by Anuradha Kapur, presents the life of
Jayashankar Sundari, a famous Gujarati female impersonator whom we have discussed in the
last section. The play, based on his autobiography, reads him in the light of blurring sexual
identities that have not been spoken about before. The body of the female impersonator,
which was always hidden behind the body represented in the times of company theatre, is
brought to the forefront in these plays. The play starts with middle aged Sundari narrating his
story as a female impersonator. He wears his saree slowly but very deftly in the beginning
of the play (Kapur 2004, 109). Through the presentation of the moments of becoming the
woman, the shift in the gender identity is made bare which unravels the unspoken aspects of
the female impersonators, i.e., the body. Another such moment is a scene where three
Sundaris, each representing Sundari in different ages, do their make up on the stage
portraying the actors moments of becoming. The make-up room becomes central to the play
which is a space between the realm of reality and the realm of a completely imaginary world
of performance, i.e., the stage. This space is the conflicted amalgamation of identities which
could provide a glimpse of the blurring gender boundaries. Here, the body represented is that
of the representative, and hence the palimpsest of the representation of gender on the body of
the female impersonator brings out the complex nexus between the representation of gender
and the gender identity of the representatives body. As Mangai notes, if the sexual enigma
of the feminist impersonator lies in his skills of being perfectly a woman, then undressing

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him is to expose him, and therefore to make him vulnerable to the open and contingent
realities of performance (Mangai 2015, 107). A very interesting scene that presents the
vulnerability of the representatives body is important in understanding the experience of
sexual continuum. The body which was always hidden behind the womens roles played on
stage, is now exposed, examined, and analysed.. In one of the scenes, Sundari comes on the
stage and unbuttons his blouse and lies down, keeps a lamp on his bare body and delivers a
soliloquy. The soliloquy is as follows,
That moment when Jaishankar first put on the choli, blouse and lehnga of a woman, that
moment he transformed into femaleness, into a female icon. []A vision, not of a man, but
young woman, beautiful, graceful, attractive, the pride of Guhara; with eyes full of
compassion emerges from within me. Who is this woman I see?[] when I became a woman
for the first time, I felt some slight hesitation, but now I feel that I am a woman. My countless
admirer have made me the beautiful one, made me Sundari (Kapur 2004, 110).

Moreover, such exposure and examination of the impersonator takes place in the
performance space through another play about the female impersonator. However, the play
doesnt intend to question the gender identity of Sundari, which could be easily dismissed.
According to Mangai, Kapur didnt make the female impersonator a feminised man; rather,
he notes that maleness and femaleness were the results of make-up, blouse, padding (Mangai
2015, 107). The play seems to be interested in the glimpses of the experience of sexual
continuum in the moments of transition. The above soliloquy is taken from a small paragraph
in his autobiography, which is quoted in the section on company theatre. It is interesting to
observe the choice of certain parts of his autobiography that would hint at the focus of the
play. It is also revelatory of the ways in which the same writing has been read at different
times. The act of unbuttoning the blouse and holding the lamp on his chest can be seen as a
very moving instance of visual imagery, signifying the poignant moments of blurring gender
identity. This scene freezes the moment of transition and exposes the contradictions he lives
with. The unbuttoned blouse captures the female impersonator caught in the transition
between two gender identities. Elongating the moments of transition, the play captures the
tensions of blurring gender identity through its visual metaphors, though not explicitly
questioning his gender identity.
Another interesting play in this context is Begum Barve written by Satish Alekar.
However, Begum Barve refers to the golden age of impersonation when Bal Gandharva was
the icon of the Indian woman, unlike the play Sundari: An Actor Prepares, which is situated
in the post-colonial India where female impersonation is history. Hence, it presents the

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troubled sexual identities of the female impersonator through the fantasies and retrospection
in which Barve lives. The protagonist Barve is a retired impersonator who sells incense sticks
on Thursdays now. In the opening scene of the play, Barve is polishing an old brass lamp, a
relic from his theatre days, wearing a heavily embroidered shawl on him given by Bal
Gandharva. This sets the tone of the play as he lives in the world of fantasy and
reminiscences which, as Karekatti notes, is an escape from the harsh reality (Karekatti 2012).
Shamrao was a tongawalla, and now behaves as if he owns Barve and treats Barve as his
mare Begum, whose name is given to Barve by him. What is interesting in this conversation
is again the body of the impersonator. Barve, who lives in the world of fantasy himself,
submits to the economic and sexual exploitations by Lame Shamrao.
Shamrao: You are pregnant? You? You-hoo-hoo-hoo! Did you hear that? Nalawadebai is
pregnant. You-hoohoo- hoo!Look at his dhoti. Nalawadebais dhoti. Look at this dhotiwearing woman. Look at this woman, pregnant without a womb. (Shamrao pulls off Barves
dhoti, revealing his knee-length striped drawers.) Show us where you get pregnant, bastard.
Look, look, look. Take a look at Nalawadebais knickers! (Barve screams in anguish,
struggles, kicks, but wont let go of them swing) (Alekar 2009, 346).

This also marks an epistemic shift in the realm of female impersonation. As noted in
the previous section, female impersonation was a mark of pride due to which impersonators
had attained stardom. Nonetheless, sexuality of the female impersonator was never spoken
about, rather the concentration was on sculpting the represented female figure. Karekatti
borrowing from Nandy and Chakravarthy concludes that this is a result of colonial rule. As
Indian men were looked down upon as feminine by the colonizers, late nineteenth century
Indian reformists responded by reinventing a belligerent style of masculinity (Karekatti
2012, 7). Therefore, the impersonators body is a site of shame as it is suspected of sexual
ambiguity. However, since he finds solace in living in the fantasy, it seems that his body
carries the reminiscence of his past life as a female impersonator. The contemporary views
about female impersonation are conflicted with Barves ideas of impersonation which is
situated in the age of Sangeet Natak Akademy. Since Barves life span sprawls across these
two phases of female impersonation, the shift in the discursive construction of female
impersonation is clear here. Barve is reluctant to come out of the past where stalwarts like
Bal Gandharva were celebrated. However, his retired life falls into the historical time where
the body of female impersonators is seen from the point of view of alternative sexuality.
Therefore, Barve has no place to live as he says, I exist only while the lamp exists [] The
night belongs to my lamp. To the organ. To the velvet curtain. To the stole that was once

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Narayanraos [Bal Gandharva] (Alekar 2009, 304).3 His existence in the unreal space
between the past and the present, imagination and reality mark the vulnerability of his
imagined self- female impersonator. I would like to note that this vulnerability is due to his
existence in the space between the discursive shifts in the female impersonation in the two
different historical timeframes.
Through these meta-theatrical plays, it is clear that female impersonation after the entry of
women into theatre has not only ended, but also has been constructed differently. The
sexuality and the body of the impersonator is central in discussions of female impersonation.
It is possible to speculate about whether the increasing awareness of different sexualities has
enabled us to see female impersonation in this light. The case study of the last female
impersonator, Chapal Bhaduri, gives many insights into the gender construction of female
impersonation in the post-colonial era.

Figure 3. Kishore, Naveen. Chapal Bhaduri preparing to play the goddess Sati. 1998.
http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/features/higgins/higgins7-20-7.asp.

Chapal Bhaduri, a famous Bengali female impersonator, in Naveen Kishores documentary

called performing the Goddess, faces the camera after dressing up in a saree and drawing
elaborate makeup on his face to say Now I am Chapal Rani, not Chapal Bhaduri (Bhaduri
3 The reference is to the shawl once Bal Gandharva had given to Barve as a
token appreciation of his good performance.

13

1999). Though the rhetoric is of an actor losing himself in the character, it is clear that the
emphasis is on the transformation of a man into a woman. Since Chapal Bhaduri has
proclaimed his alternative sexuality, his transformation into a woman in the performance
space cant escape being read for its gendered connotation. Bhaduri admits that ever since I
was a child this femininity has been a part of me (Bhaduri 1999). The femininity of his
private life informs the understanding of his female impersonation. The knowledge of the
troubled sexuality of the female impersonator places transvestism in a different light where
the transvestites female character on stage becomes the locus of understanding the
expression of ones sexuality. Niladri Chatterji in his essay Now Im Chapal Rani: Chapal
Bhaduris Hyperformative Female Impersonation, denies the claim that Chapal is a drag
queen because a drag queen satirizes heteronormative gender constructions whereas
Bhaduris performance has no agenda of deconstructing gender boundaries, rather it is an
honest representation of female roles in the plays written by men. It is important to note that
this is not a performance which tends to be a political demonstration, but is supposed to be a
pure performance in its intention, which can be read in the light of the political and social
dynamics of its times as in the case of female impersonation of earlier times. Chatterji notes
that Bhaduri, through his sincere attempt at erasing his off-stage gender during his
performance and using the lines attributed to his on-stage character to express his inner offstage femininity is subverting the patriarchal notion (Chatterji 2009). I would argue that the
political implication of his performance has been necessitated due to the conversation about
his personal life. Hence in contrast to the transvestites in the times of company theatre, the
discussion on the transvestism of Chapal Bhaduri is more about the expression of the inner
self which doesnt fit in the normative heterosexual categories. Chapal Bhaduri says,
There were problems at home, difficulties, lack of privacy and space, but a tremendous
longing and desire in both of us. So we would go away together whenever I had some time off
wed stay together for 15-16 days at a stretch. From the magazines I read it seems this
happens quite a lot in the west (Bhaduri 1999).

To know that this happens quite a lot somewhere in the world is important here. A
vague idea about the existence of such a relationship itself enables him to articulate his
private life. Even the moments of realization of gender uncertainties that a transvestite might
face is spoken of due to the awareness of an expanded range of possibilities of sexuality
(Fausto-Sterling 2000). The increasing discourses of sexuality studies have enabled us to
understand gender identity in transvestism with the consciousness of the sexual continuum,
thereby bringing different insights to the understanding of the gender identity of the

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transvestite (Fausto-Sterling 2000). Though this case study moves from performance space to
the private space, the very presence of body and sexuality in the conversation of
impersonation reiterates the way impersonation has been looked at.4 It is impossible to ignore
the possibilities of the influence of what Foucault calls multiplication of discourses
concerning sex on the female impersonation. Kathryn Hansen in her essay A Different
Desire, A different Femininity, excavates the homoerotic and transgender elements of female
impersonation in Parsi theatre. She opines, Theatrical transvestism not only enabled actors
to transform their own gender identities but also sustained and eventually reworked viewing
practices predicated on interest in transgender identification and the homoerotic gaze
(Hansen 2002). This enabling factor of female impersonation has been further explained
through the examples of homoerotic moments in the practise of female impersonation in
company theatre. She emphasizes the passionate admiration for Bal Gandharva that his male
audiences had expressed, which can be read along the lines of homoerotic valence. For
example, there are references to the lusty applause of college boys as Gandharva entered
the stage as Shakuntala. An Actor called Londe, admits that he experienced a unique thrill
when he stood next to Bal Gandharva (Hansen 1998). To read homosexuality in this phase,
we need to fight against the rhetoric of friendship because though there are glimpses of
homoerotic elements, such relationships were claimed as great friendships. However, the
understanding of female impersonation which is a rare phenomenon in the post-colonial era,
revolves around the body of the impersonator.
The revisits to the female impersonation of earlier times seems to be an extension of
the meta-theatrical performances about the female impersonator and case study of the female
impersonator Chapal Bhaduri, at discursive level. I would like to argue that as the discourses
are informed by the awareness of multiple sexualities, we read alternative sexuality in the
practises of transvestism which can be seen in the plays about female impersonators, though
here I am not denying the presence of homoerotic moments in the practises of female
impersonation in earlier times.
To conclude, female impersonation in India has undergone changes in different
historical time periods. It is possible to say that it has been constructed based on the dominant
4 There are reconstructed narratives about the female impersonator of company theatre. In a Marathi
movie on Balgandhrva released on 2011, he is clearly not drawn towards his wife, rather quite upset
and repulsed. However, he dresses up as a woman and makes love to his own wife. Kindness in him is
kindled only when he is in his female costumes and thus he consummates his marriage

15

political rhetoric of that period. Nonetheless, in the case of the non-existence of female
impersonation in post-independence, the plays and case studies and discourses on female
impersonation have been studied here. These have common patterns that give room for
speculation as to whether this is due to the larger dominant discourse of this historical period.

References
Alekar, Satish. 2009. "Begum Barve." In Collected Plays of Satish Alekar, by Satish Alekar.
New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

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1999. Performing the Goddess. Directed by Naveen Kishore. Produced by The Seagull
Foundation for Arts. Performed by Chapal Bhaduri.
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